Homemade Rustic Bread

Ingredients

• 1 package of dry yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1.25 cups warm water
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 2.5 cups All-Purpose Flour, plus extra for dusting

Instructions

• Combine yeast, sugar, salt, and warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook (you could also mix this dough by hand if you like – just use a large mixing bowl
• Let the mixture sit for about 5 minutes to absorb together.
• Add flour to bowl, a little at a time and mix on low speed until all flour is incorporated and dough has just started to pull away from the sides of the bowl. (If you’re mixing by hand, mix until ingredients have just come together and form a smooth dough).
• Lightly flour all sides of your dough (don’t mix the flour in – it’s just to keep the dough from sticking!) and turn it over inside the mixing bowl to coat with flour on all sides. Cover with a dish towel and let rise on the counter for about 1 hour, until dough has just about doubled in size.
• After your dough has risen flour your hands and take it out of the bowl and make it into a nice round loaf.  You’re going to flour another bowl and place your little ball in that bowl for another half-hour or so. It’s going to be sticky and that’s okay, just keep flouring your hands so it doesn’t stick too much them.
• While your bread is sitting for this last 30 minutes, place an empty dutch oven (with the lid on) in your oven and heat to 460 degrees F.
• When the oven is hot, you’re ready for oven placement. Use oven mitts to pull the dutch oven out and remove the lid.
• VERY CAREFULLY (without burning yourself!) place it your bread into the hot dutch oven.
• Put your oven mitts back on, pot the dutch oven lid back on the pot, and slide the whole thing back into your hot oven.

COOK

• Cook bread for 25 minutes until the bread is nice, browned, and crispy looking.
• When bread is done, use oven mitts to pull the pot out of your oven.
• Use a long spatula to lift the bread out of the dutch oven and onto a cooling rack. Let cool just enough so you don’t burn your hands and dig in.